Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, Life Giving Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and profitable to those who see the sun. [12] For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.

The focus on this passage is the acquisition of wisdom. The inheritor is blessed for his inheritance, but more so if he possesses the wisdom to use it discreetly and prudently. Such wisdom is profitable, the preacher relates, to those that see the sun. Referencing the sun, the preacher is referring to daily, common life wisdom. It is the prudence of someone self-controlled, who is patient and thoughtful, considering outcomes and weighing choice and consequence.

Wisdom is revered in Scripture, depicted in the book of Proverbs as a woman calling out in the streets for the simple to heed her summons. “Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice? To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men, O you simple ones, understand prudence, and you fools, be of an understanding heart,” Proverbs 8:1, 4, 5. The universal, inclusive message preached is that anyone may acquire wisdom. Furthermore, wisdom is not something intuited internally, but received externally, depicted by the woman calling the men of the city to hearken to her. Wisdom extols its virtue to the recipient, selling its strong points, “Listen, I will speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things; for my mouth will speak truth,” Proverbs 8:6, 7. In fact, wisdom goes so far as to contrast silver, gold, rubies, and “all the things one may desire,” against her, Proverbs 8:11. Wisdom, which is an abstract concept, is weighed against the lust of the eyes and the material accumulation that provokes us to forsake wisdom in its pursuit.


Even the possession of material goods is abstracted, so to speak. Much of what we own is not necessary to life under the sun. The music I listen to, movies I enjoy, or books I read, for instance, have no physical value. They serve nothing for the body. Regardless, I value them. Materialism isn’t a physical thing per se; it begins in the heart with a lust to acquire and a failure to gain or utilize godly wisdom to regulate want from overwhelming our thoughts. The things we can acquire are material and therefore ephemeral; they will fail us in time or we may exploit them improperly. Wisdom is better than these. The benefit of wisdom is manifold. It permits man to speak excellent and right things. It compels us to speak truth and find wicked words abominable. The words of the wise are righteous, lacking crookedness or perversion, and are plain to those who understand. This simply means the wise do not employ wordcraft to beguile the untrained or uninitiated with wordplay. Ancient Gnosticism, for instance, used words and phrases that meant two differing things: one to the uninitiated, and another, deeper meaning to the indoctrinated. And this from a cult whose name essentially meant knowledge.


Furthermore, we read, “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate,” Proverbs 8:12, 13. Wisdom has sisters. Prudence, knowledge and discretion are a package deal, so to speak. When you acquire wisdom, you have found a manifold gift. Prudence can simply mean caution. This is perhaps a watered down definition, but it articulates the point. Knowledge is simply that: to comprehend something in a defined manner that grants the owner the benefit of understanding. Oxford defines discretion as, “individually separate and distinct.” The American Heritage Dictionary renders it thus, “The ability or power to discern what is responsible or socially appropriate.” When someone is discreet they handle the matter delicately, not intentionally causing distress or offense. In other words, they are conscious and considerate of others.


The fear of the Lord, from which wisdom springs, is to cultivate a natural contempt for evil in all its forms. Pride and arrogance are both viewed as evil. The evil way suggests a path that is contrary to wisdom’s counsel and God’s authority over mankind, see Ecclesiastes 7:29. The preacher tells us that wisdom is a defense as money is, but wisdom excels wealth in that it grants life to those who have it. Simply put, any fool can be rich by inheritance or happy chance; the truly wise are rich in ways that can preserve their life. If the wise man possesses wisdom and her sisters, then he does not walk in the evil way, practice pride or arrogance, or covet all the things one may desire. Rather, he practices what his teacher, wisdom, imparts: prudence, knowledge, and discretion. Though one was materially poor, yet these would serve the practitioner well. And since the fear of the Lord is the foundation of genuine wisdom, the crown or summit of what is wise is that, by encountering the source of wisdom and accepting Him by faith, one’s life is eternally preserved. We have rejected worldly acclaim for eternal comfort. "He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose," Philip Henry.

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